A legal dispute with a link to former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale has been settled.

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Paul Pisasale linked case settles for $2.4 million

by Vanda Carson

25th Mar 2018 9:15 AM
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A LONG-running legal battle sensationally linked to a wad of cash found on disgraced former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale has been settled for $2.4 million.

Expatriate Chinese millionaire businessman Xin Zhong Han has been awarded the $2.4 million home of former neighbour Hui Tian, in the leafy western Brisbane suburb of Chapel Hill.

Tian, 33, is due to be sentenced on 10 fraud and impersonation charges in May.

He must pay a further $2.4 million to Mr Han, in orders made by Justice Martin Burns in Brisbane Supreme Court.

Mr Han told the court he loaned $1.2 million to Tian, ostensibly to buy a Melbourne karaoke bar, but Tian lost the money gambling. Tian admitted he owed the money and he expected he would be bankrupted.

In separate criminal proceedings in the District Court, Tian said he planned to plead guilty to the 10 fraud charges.

Mr Han filed a suit demanding repayment of the loan plus interest and costs, in 2015, claiming Tian agreed to pay interest of 3 per cent a month.

The court heard Tian's wife, Jenny Wu, told Mr Han's wife she had initially asked her parents to lend her money for the Melbourne karaoke business, but they had refused. Ms Wu has not been ordered to pay any money.

Mr Han alleged Ms Wu told his wife that her father-in-law "was coming to Australia and would or may be able to pay the outstanding sums."

The dispute became linked to the Pisasale corruption scandal last June when Brisbane barrister Sam Di Carlo told The Courier-Mail the $50,000 found on Pisasale by federal police sniffer dogs was being carried to Brisbane so it could to be paid to Mr Han as part of an out-of-court settlement for the case.

Mr Di Carlo said the cash was to be paid to Mr Han by his client, Ying Fan, and Tian's aunt. Ms Fan was a co-defendant in the claim but Mr Han discontinued the case against her on August 22 last year.

No charges have been laid over the $50,000 found on Pisasale at the Melbourne airport. Pisasale has been charged with corruption by the CCC over an unrelated payment of $50,000 in exchange for council's then-chief executive reducing the price of a Goodna property sold to a developer.